311:, where all her clothes are stolen. Kit visits Bob in hospital, without Jack. She mentions in passing that Jack is busy because it's his "last week" at work, and Bob and Joan seem not to know that he has been fired. Jack sits in on a studio session for the band "the dirt!" and falls asleep. Kit's exhibition opens, but few attend as the invitations were not sent out on time by the gallery. Jack does not attend, which disappoints Kit. E's film is screened to a small audience but she does not attend either, spending the night practicing
272:. Jack returns home having printed 50 copies of the zine for E. Kit tells Jack they should make time to clear out the spare room so that a fourth housemate can move in. Kit rehearses for a play in which she is playing accordion, and she and Jack go out for dinner while E practices drums at home. While attempting to kill a spider that has come into the car, Jack smashes the front headlight.
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On
Tuesday, Kit and E drink coffee in the backyard and make plans to see Joey's band, Dirt. (It is later revealed they have changed their name to "the dirt!") Jack then goes to visit his parents, Bob (Tony Barry) and Joan (Julie Hamilton), before Bob's upcoming hospital admission. Jack asks them what
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in the mail, and mentions that she sent her latest application off earlier that morning in the postbox across the street. She talks to Jack about her artistic ambitions and need for recognition, and mentions again that he has given up on his filmmaking. That night, Jack and Kit attend a house party.
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Mansfield wrote 12 drafts of the script. It eventually got some finance through the New
Screenwriters Scheme of the NSW Film and TV Office, through which Bill Bennett agreed to mentor Mansfield. Then the film attracted support from Bridgit Ikin, head of SBS Independent, and Marion Pilowski, Head of
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Kit and E then attend the "Carmageddon" protest where Kit finds that Jack has given her VW Beetle car away to be smashed up by attendees. Kit decides to break up with him, but is brought around when Jack turns up to her play. He gifts E with the Mary statue and Kit with a small ceramic cow. He also
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Mansfield showed the script to
Rosemary Blight who liked it and decided to produce it. "I first read it on the bus between Broadway and Newtown," Blight said, "and I couldn’t stop laughing. It was very observant of people – in fact, some of the characters seemed to be on the same bus with me… He’s
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On
Wednesday, E meets Kit at a café and introduces her to Brett (Michael Angus), who is practicing martial arts. Kit reflects that she feels "stuck in a long queue" and discusses her lunch date with Hunter from the previous day. That evening, Jack returns home with his parents' dog, Rex, and their
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On Monday, Kit is working at her job stacking shelves at a local supermarket and Jack goes to a local barber, Vince (Francesco
Caudullo), for a shave. Vince suggests that Jack should take a holiday. Kit reflects that butchers seem to be happy people, and works on some new paintings for an upcoming
355:
Mansfield was working at Film
Australia and working on the script. It began as a purely visual comedy, "then I started working in dialogue and it took off from there," said Mansfield. "In the final stages of development, we worked on bridging the kitchen sink drama with the observational comedy."
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which chronicles "a week in
Marrickville... everyday life is art." Scenes of E making the zine and Jack photocopying it at work are interspersed throughout the film, including pages titled with days of the week, but these do not necessarily signify what day it is within the narrative.
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fly over earlier that day, to which Jack expresses surprise because they had just attended a protest against the airport. Kit and E respond that the
Concorde is "different." Meanwhile, at a local kebab shop, a newspaper headline reveals that this week there has been no Lotto winner.
322:
On
Saturday, Kit plays soccer with Rex at the Canterbury Velodrome in the morning. Kit and E then attend the protest at Sydney Airport, throwing paper planes and blowing whistles in the departure lounge. Meanwhile, Jack helps film a commercial, and acquires a large ceramic statue of
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367:
Shooting took five weeks, with six weeks of shooting the "zine" elements. Mansfield called the film "'zinema'... a wanky excuse for a cut and paste style. Zine as in home made, non-profit sort of magazine. It’s expressionistic in style but naturalistic in content."
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Cinematographer Toby Oliver said the film uses "wobblycam, and a fragmented jump cut style, but also some scenes are very static with no camera movement, or there may be an elaborate dolly set up. We are also using photos and words sprinkled through the film. "
364:
Acquisitions and
Program Development at Premium Movie Partnership (Foxtel) who supported the film's successful application to be one of the five "Million Dollar Movies" jointly financed by the Australian Film Commission and SBS Independent.
247:
results, Jack gets up on the house roof to adjust the TV antenna. While Kit watches the Lotto results, she cuts her bangs. Kit and E go off to meet their friend Joey (Chrissy Ynfante) at "The Garage" while Jack stays up late to watch the
327:. Later, he turns up to the hospital to visit Bob and finds out he's already been discharged. Returning to his parents' home and dropping off Rex, he chats to Bob who mentions "All I needed was a breath of fresh air."
397:
was less enthusiastic, wondering if the film might have been better as a short, and adding that it had a "fairly inaccessible originality... I mean, I feel it’s a real generation of film of which I am not a part." In
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praised the "intriguing mix of the mundane and the exotic (that) delivers something of the exotic flavour of an inner-suburban Australian neighbourhood", adding that the film "leaves you wanting a sequel".
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reviewed the film favourably, calling it "rather effective, surprisingly romantic at times, very atmospheric, with great use of music and lots of youthful energy".
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The film takes place over one week in July 1998, but does not consistently present the narrative chronologically. This is an approximation of events.
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very observant…his view of the world is very different. In other scripts, you see people larger than life, but he sees them as they are."
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to photocopy at work. Kit reflects on the difference between pool and snooker. At work, she runs into an old friend, Hunter (
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335:, and make a new film. Kit then plays accordion in a band at a Carmageddon benefit show, but the set is interrupted by a
165:. Set over one week in July 1998, the film tells the story of Jack, Kit and E, three housemates who live together in the
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404:, Garry Maddox called the film "an innovative feature that celebrates the underachiever". Paul Byrnes, also of the
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408:, called the film "quietly charming" with a tone "never quite wholly satirical, nor wholly serious". Tom Ryan in
200:. Mansfield has held occasional public screenings of this version, but it has not been publicly released either.
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exhibition. Over dinner, Jack wonders if he has wasted his life and the three housemates discuss paths forward.
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On Sunday, Kit suggests to Jack that he should be a filmmaker but he reacts cynically. They drive in Kit's old
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173:. The narrative is presented non-chronologically in a disorienting editing style that Mansfield called "
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On Friday, Kit and E swap stories about things they have seen throughout the week as they play
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in Jack's clothes. Hunter is one of the few people to show up, gifting E with a large
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off the street. Jack manages to wrest it from his mouth and deposit the firework in a
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barbecue strapped to the roof. E begins editing a film to show at Kit's exhibition.
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they'd do if they won Lotto, and they demur. E gives Jack the latest copy of
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Kit discusses plans to attend two protests on Saturday - one against
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177:." It was one of a series of "million dollar movies" financed by the
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is a 1999 Australian film directed by Neil Mansfield and produced by
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As the film ends, Kit and E excitedly talk about having seen the
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522:"Event listining for screening of Static Electricity"
192:or streaming platforms since. In 2020, during the
473:"Australian Films at the Australian Box Office",
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506:Andrew L Urban, "FRESH AIR – ON LOCATION",
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383:was positively received in Australia. On
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728:Australian comedy-drama films
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733:1990s English-language films
566:Maddox, Garry (7 May 1999).
511:. Retrieved 12 November 2012
300:, and another against cars.
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592:Byrnes, Paul (8 May 1999).
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618:Ryan, Tom (11 July 1999).
485:Retrieved 12 November 2012
179:Australian Film Commission
598:The Sydney Morning Herald
572:The Sydney Morning Herald
401:The Sydney Morning Herald
184:The film was released on
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539:Stratton, David (1999).
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594:"Marrickville Moments"
449:Julie Hamilton as Joan
181:and SBS Independent.
142:A$ 10.050 (Australia)
620:"Fresh Air (review)"
422:Marin Mimica as Jack
18:1999 Australian film
663:at Screen Australia
568:"The air down here"
376:Critical reception
198:Static Electricity
194:COVID-19 lockdowns
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93:Release date
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629:9 September
603:9 September
577:9 September
551:9 September
455:as Preacher
440:as Harrison
325:Mother Mary
270:advertising
262:Pretty Ugly
233:Pretty Ugly
134:$ 1 million
54:Produced by
38:Directed by
723:1999 films
717:Categories
673:Letterboxd
460:References
444:Tony Barry
351:Production
169:suburb of
139:Box office
79:Production
46:Written by
706:Fresh Air
698:Fresh Air
687:Fresh Air
668:Fresh Air
660:Fresh Air
649:Fresh Air
381:Fresh Air
317:sunflower
309:tattooist
250:World Cup
241:VW Beetle
213:Fresh Air
150:Fresh Air
118:Australia
24:Fresh Air
479:Archived
344:Concorde
281:firework
123:Language
86:RB Films
64:Starring
690:at the
624:The Age
526:Amplify
410:The Age
285:postbox
126:English
115:Country
102: (
81:company
446:as Bob
428:as Kit
406:Herald
305:Boggle
175:zinema
167:Sydney
131:Budget
547:. SBS
296:from
245:Lotto
654:IMDb
631:2024
605:2024
579:2024
553:2024
434:as E
417:Cast
333:dole
313:bass
229:zine
161:and
104:1999
100:1999
671:at
652:at
211:As
190:DVD
186:VHS
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490:^
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106:)
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